Drift
by c o c o r i n i
Summary: The Titans have taken everything from us. Our hope, our curiosity, our freedom. We're like a cornered animal that only has a few moments to live. Will lay down and die, or rise and strike back? (JeanxOC) Slight AU, Future AU


The Titans almost took everything from us. They took our freedom, our hope, our curiosity.

In the past, humanity simply played the role of a prey that was cornered by an unknown, unbeatable predator. We were pushed to our limits, to the brink of extinction by the humanoid monsters whose origins remain a mystery to even the most elite geniuses. The Titans, at any moment, could have eradicated us completely, like a simple swat of a fly. However, for whatever reason, they toyed with us. Wiping out nearly half of our population, and then disappearing, allowing us to rebuild and grow. That was their biggest mistake.

Mankind has made many mistakes that has caused the lives of countless, innocent people. But what truly sets us apart from the Titans was our ability to learn from those mistakes. Like a cornered animal, we've risen and stuck back at the Titans, taking back what they've stolen from us.

Today, we're no longer ruled by them. We're no longer caged in. We have risen, and we will continue to rise.

It's simply, human nature.

* * *

The alarms echoed and blared throughout the barracks at the Yeager System HQ. The ringing caused shivers to run up and down the spine of the girl who rushed through the slightly crowded corridors. She gave curt nods to the greeting she received from fellow soldiers who acknowledged her as she rushed passed them, quick and light on her feet. The lights that hung above lit her lightly tanned face, and bounced off the short black hair that sat upon the crown of her head, and barely kissed the peaks of her shoulders. Her thin, peach colored lips pulled back into a smile as she turned another corner down another, dimly lit corridor whose walls were lined with wide widows that gave an eye into the grand preparation room that seemed to be crawling with hundreds of rushed workers who aimed to equip every soldier with their driftsuit.

Watching the urgency of those who surrounded her pushed the girl to walk just a little bit fast, to rush just a little more to her destination.

She finally reached her destination of the main preparation room doors. Lining up behind the other several soldiers before her, the girl finally had a few moments to collect her thoughts and to calm the nerves that snapped and riveted throughout her body.

'You have one mission,' she reminded herself, as she absentmindedly took a few steps forward as the line progressed on, 'A simple, simple mission.'

Her obsidian eyes rose to the wall above the door that she finally stood before.

In aged, flaking paint was written "NAM HUMANITAS", in an old, obsolete language that only the wise was fluent in.

"For humanity," she mumbled to herself as she punched in her identification code into the system, signifying her arrival. She walked through the metal doors once they opened for her, her footsteps clanking lightly on the metal walkway below her.

The whirring of moving machines reached her ears as she neared her assigned portal. The excitement of the people around her proved to be contagious as she found herself nearly running towards her portal.

'You have one mission, and it's all for humanity.' She reminded herself as she all but hopped into her portal, spinning to face the way that she entered. As the glass pane slid the portal opening shut, she finally tuned into the automated, repeated instructions that have been announced in union with the alarms that called everyone to action.

"A fifteen meter Titan was been spotted near the Shinganshina ruins. Please deploy all qualified soldiers to perform an assessment of the area."

The messaged ended with another alarm before being repeated again, drilling the simple yet vital instructions into the minds of all the soldiers who were stationed at the Yeager System headquarters.

The girl, now itching to get her chance with the Titan, relaxed her muscles enough to be suited into her driftsuit. Within seconds, the suit was pressed onto her body on the both sides, drilling itself together before her headgear was lowered onto her shoulders, compressing around her.

She took in a deep breath as another automated voice came on through the headset of her headgear. "Please provide identification," the voice requested.

"Identification number 37845E," the girl replied, as the turned once more to face the pathway that had opened behind her. She walked through the opposite portal door into the conn-pod with a mind meld system on the wall before her.

"Welcome, Edith," the system greeted as she made her way to the mind meld system, "Please prepare for your Drift. You have been assigned to the first wave of surveyors," the automated voice went on.

Edith took in a deep breath before walking into the system, lining her feet into the guidelines below her. Leaning forward, she closed her eyes slowly as the system wired around her, as she prepared for the synchronization that'll give her power over her Yeager suit.

Without further notices, Edith's mind was drifted and melded with all the past memories and visions of the soldiers who utilized the system before her. Alive and deceased. Her eyelids clenched together tighter, the waves and pulses of all the memories flooding into her mind, filling her brain with past experiences, triumphs and mistakes. All the final thoughts and feelings of fallen soldiers before her, shook through her system as she stood there silently, using the training she's received to not allow those memories to break her, but rather to make her resolve and mission that much stronger.

Her head snapped forward when the drift concluded, her eyes sliding open. She trembled with nervousness, anger, and the burning desire for revenge as all the images replayed in her mind, over and over again. She took a silent deep breath as the automated voiced called for her attention.

She moved her left arm, then her left leg before repeating her actions on the right side of her body to complete the physical sync with the Yeager system. With even the slightest of movements, she could feel the large, mechanical weapon that she now had power over mimic her movements perfectly, without delay. She clenched her fists into themselves, causing the Yeager suit to do the same, causing a loud, shaking metallic noise to erupt throughout the station her 20m Yeager suit was stored in.

She let out a loud battle cry as the large doors opened, revealing the outside world to her. Stepping her right foot forward before her left one, her Yeager suit ached forward. Once fully outside, the sun blaring down through the glass face of her Yeager suit, Edith plunged forward, in pursuit of the Shinganshina ruins.

The location of where humanity was once again reminded of what they were - a caged powerless animal.

* * *

AN: Thank you for baring with me through that first chapter, haha. It might be a little confusing because I obviously focused on several aspects that have nothing to do with the Shingeki no Kyojin world. I used some features from Pacific Rim (an amazing movie btw). Don't worry about not knowing anything from that universe though, this and a little bit of the next chapter will be the only ones that truly concentrate on that stuff, everything else will be all Shingeki no Kyojin centric. (: The beginning of this story (this chapter) takes place waaaay in the future, like...2000 years into the future haha. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the beginning of this story, even though i was very very hard to start haha. Please do leave comments of what you thought about this chapter/ways for me to improve it.

xoxo


End file.
